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This blog explains how buying, building or renting a house works in Australia. It makes an interesting reading for newbies and outsiders, expats and newcomers, basically anyone who is not familiar with Australian real estate market.

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If you are on a tightest budget and even building your own house is too much for your pocket, there is another way. You can buy a block of land and relocate someone else’s house – how’s that for an idea?

The advantages are obvious – it’s cheaper than building a new house (you can save up to 50%), it’s faster – removal can be finished within a couple of weeks, and often the quality is better because many of the older houses were built using higher quality materials than those used today.

Apparently there are many people who sell the houses they own for removals - to avoid paying demolishing costs. I saw several houses for sale in the Trading post (http://www.tradingpost.com.au) for $1000 – $2000, plus the removal of a house costs, about $30000 - $35000. The way it is done, you hire a removal company and they handle everything – remove the roof, cut the house in sections of transportable size and then move the house to your site where they install and re-join it, as well as put a new roof over it.

Many of us don’t know, forget or do not think about the expenses that come with owning a house, yet they can add up. I decided to list most of them (everything I could think of) as a reminder of what’s involved in owning a house.
So there are expenses of purchasing a house, as well as expenses of owning and maintaining it.

House buying expenses:

The housing affordability (which is really closed to none these days) got me thinking – there must be a way out. So I can not afford to buy a reasonably sized house in the inner city suburbs, but does it mean that I am doomed to renting?

At first I was thinking – what if I buy a block of land and build my own house? This way I can save the money that otherwise would have been the builder’s profit. But then – I don’t know the first thing about building a house and what’s involved. How much would that cost, what kind of permits do I need to get, who will draw my plans, where to start? So I was searching for answers and found some useful info.

At first, I wanted to see how much I will save if I build myself. So I have found this building costs calculator.Use it - and get an idea how much your dream home will cost you. Don’t miss the assumptions they base the calculation on (listed under “Assumptions”).